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I can imagine two separate motives for this hack:

(1) The hackers dislike the idea of adultery and wanted to harm the site & punish its users;

(2) The hackers wanted to blackmail the site and its users by threatening to expose them if they did not pay hush money or perform other services (e.g. reveal secrets).

It seems that motive (1) has some acceptance (people are cheering the hackers), but I think (2) seems more plausible. These guys aren't heroes: they found a vulnerable target and went after it.



(3) They're in it for the lulz, and realized that going after an unsavory company with unsavory clients they'd create a Schadenfreude-fueled media sensation they'd have extra lulz.


Except they didn't do #2 and instead just released it. That kind of kills the blackmail value, doesn't it?


Maybe they had a private communication with AM, and only released it after the negotiations broke down?


(3) They wanted to sting one poor sap. Added him to the DB, release with motive (2) and done.




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